Degrees

Based on X-men: The Last Stand and X-men comics universe

Warning: Major spoilers for X-men 3!

Disclaimer: Iceman and other X-men characters are owned and copyright of Marvel and 20th Century Fox. They are being used here for non-profit entertainment only.

Part One: Reunions

The only sound in Ronny Drake's hospital room was the constant beeping of the monitor. The doctors told his parents that his chances of survival were 50/50. His mother could barely look at him. His face was grotesquely disfigured. According to the police, he was found unconscious in a dark alley. Somebody had beaten him to within a few inches of death. Madeline wept, while Mr. Drake looked on stoically, willing his son to find his way back. Suddenly, Ronny moved ever so slightly. He painfully opened his eyes.

"Ronny!" his mother screamed. She stood by his bed while her husband Steven ran to get a doctor.

"…mom?..." Ronny managed to say weakly

"Oh Ronny, we were so worried! Oh baby, please don't leave me too."

"…mom…I need to…I need to talk to him…"

"Him? Who, Ronny?"

"…Bobby…I need to talk to Bobby…"


Bobby Drake stood in front of the tombstones. He looked around to see if anybody was near. Satisfied that he was alone, he sat down on the grass.

"I'm sorry I have not come by in a while. Things have been so busy lately…We all miss you a lot, all of you…I miss you." He stared at the three names: "Charles Xavier", "Scott Summers", "Jean Grey".

"Storm has been great; she has taken over the whole operation. She is a natural leader for sure. For a while she was worried about finances, but Warren's Dad apparently had a change of heart and made a "highly generous donation", according to her."

Bobby sighed. He wished such a change of heart would become a reality in his family too, but he was not holding his breath.

"Rogue and I are good. She decided to stay even though she's not a mutant anymore. We are teachers now, to the youngest kids. It's pretty cool…You know, sometimes when she touches me, I feel a tingle…I don't know how to describe it…it's like a very small residue of her power is still latent inside of her. I don't tell her, of course. I don't want to upset her."

"What else? Oh, Logan ran off again, apparently his memories are starting to come back and he just said he had to check some things out. I dunno. Although, I'm sure any day he'll be back. Boy, sometimes he looks at me like he's Rogue's Dad or something, like saying with his eyes "you mess with Rogue and I'll slash you into crushed ice". If he only knew what we…oh, sorry, you probably don't want to hear about that either."

Just then, Peter came running from inside the mansion.

"There you are. You better hurry inside, there's a phone call for you. They say it's urgent."

"Who is it?"

Peter hesitated.

"She says she's your mother."


The next day, Bobby Drake sat silently next to his brother's hospital bed. He had a cold reception from his parents, all very matter-of-fact, no emotion. They told him about how the police found Ronny, about Ronny waking up and asking to see Bobby, and how he succumbed back into the dark. He had not woken up since.

Bobby's parents had taken an hour to get something to eat.

"Who did this to you, Ronny?" Bobby thought out loud. "And why did you want to talk to me…after what you did?" Bobby's anger towards his brother, which had simmered within him for so long, was squashed the instant he saw in what bad shape Ronny was. "I guess hate, like everything else, comes in degrees", thought Bobby. No matter what his brother had done, he never wished something like this for him.

"Bobby…?" Ronny slowly opened his eyes.

"Ronny! Let me call the doctors quickly."

"No…wait….Bobby…I didn't tell them…."

"Tell who what, Ronny?"

"They kept hitting me and they kept asking,… but I didn't tell them…about you..."